With the advent of high speed copy reproduction machines, it was soon recognized that the machine operators could not perform their normal functions at a speed commensurate with the speed of the copy machine, resulting in copy output from the machines much lower than the actual printing speed of the machine. To minimize operator involvement and allow maximum output from the printing machine, automatic document handlers were developed to circulate documents to be copied to the platen of a copy machine. These automatic document handlers along with an automatic copy sheet output collators, reduce the operator tasks to the initial programming of the copy machine, loading of the original document set, paper loading, and collator unloading. However, it has been found that in producing a large quantity of small sets of documents, the machine operator cannot keep up with the output of the machine, resulting in machine down time as the collator is being emptied to allow continuation of the copy run. To overcome these difficulties, a sheet collating machine of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,160, which is adapted to collate, staple, and eject the stapled sets may be utilized. However, machines of this type of necessity require extensive floor space and are quite complex and expensive.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a sheet compiler, transport, stapler, stacker adapted to receive pre-collated output from a copy machine and perform the desired finishing operations thereon so that the operator need only remove the stapled sets from the stacker during or after the copy run.